Concrete Angel
by Kyran Micah
Summary: A one-shot about Karin Kurosaki I did; not that great; please review !


I had known Karin Kurosaki for years. She had a smart alecky mouth, a quick wit, and a dangerously soft spot for her older twin Yuzu.

They were very different.

But I swear, they loved each other more than anything in the world.

Karin was playing soccer that day. Yuzu had walked home to start dinner. I stayed to help Karin practice. She got recklessly angry if she messed something up, and her spiritual pressure would pop the ball, or catch a bit of grass on fire if she wasn't monitored correctly. It was sundown. She was wrapping her sprained ankle again ("Third time's the charm!" she joked), then put a hand to her stomach, with a pained and confused look spreading over her face. She paled further than usual.

"Karin, what's wrong?" I asked, concerned. She never liked showing her pain, especially to people outside her family.

She shook her head, re-tucking her raven black hair behind her ears.

"Just...hurts...," she gasped, and stood shakily.

"Do you need me to get Ichi-?" I offered. She glared at me, still scary even with little beads of sweat breaking out on her forehead.

"No!" she growled. She hated having her elder brother brought into her personal problems.

"Fine. Let's just get you home."

That's when the ambulance passed.

Karin stared at it, and sighed.

"Hope that's not going to us...," she muttered absently, rubbed her sore knee, and kept walking.

After a few quiet minutes, we turned a corner, and saw Karin's father, Ishiin, standing among a crowd of people.

His eyes were red and full of tears.

Karin's face softened slightly, and she raced to his side.

"What's going on?" she demanded.

Ichigo, her brother, her idol, came to her side.

And took her hand.

And started to weep.

It was scary, even to me. I can't imagine how scared Karin must have been.

To see two strong men, sobbing—men I had seen kill creatures without flinching- leaning on a fifteen year old girl, holding her hands.

And to see that same girl not shedding a tear.

She swiveled her head around, searching, searching...

I already knew she wouldn't find what she looked for.

In a panic, she dislodged herself from the arms of her family, and raced through the people, pushing them, knocking them over.

I closed my eyes.

I only wish I could've closed my ears.

Karin screamed.

A horrible, broken, defeated sound.

I walked to her, calmly.

She was knelt over the body of her twin.

The beautiful angel called Yuzu.

Yuzu's once pristine blue dress was coated in blood, centered around a stab wound in her stomach. Blood flecked her lips and cheekbones, a bit was slowly crawling down her neck. I crouched down beside Karin, who was trying to pick the gravel and dirt out of her twin's hair and shakily brushing off her dress.

"She fought...," I whispered, feeling at a loss of what else to say. "She fought hard Karin...She fought because she didn't want to leave you."

Karin stared blankly into her twin's once-bright eyes.

"She fought just for you Karin."

A tear slid down her pale, scarred cheek. And more followed.

She sobbed. Gut-wrenching, whimpering sobs.

I grabbed her arm when the men came to gather Yuzu's body.

"No!" she barked, "Don't you touch her! Don't you touch my Yuzu!"

"Karin," I hissed into her ear, "Yuzu is gone now. We cannot help her anymore."

She fell limp, making it easy to gather her into my arms and take her back to her brother and father.

Ichigo took her from me, and bowed his head to look at his baby sister.

"First Mom, now Yuzu...," he whispered, and then walked away, clutching Karin tightly to his chest.

_"Poor Karin...," __whispered_ a spirit from behind me. I didn't need to turn around to know that it was Yuzu.

_"I wish I could tell her it was ok..."_

She laid a hand on my shoulder, warm and loving even in death.

"I'll tell her." I choked out, speaking past a lump in my throat.

A soft sound of confirmation, then a light giggle.

_"C'mon then Hitsugaya-kun...Time for me to find Mommy."_

Weeks later, Matsumoto put a letter on my desk. It was crinkled and ice blue. I opened it cautiously, smelling Karin's citrus perfume with every movement.

Last Wish of Karin I. Kurosaki

If you're reading this right now, then I won.

I'm dead.

So I need everyone who gets a letter like this to do me one thing.

Just one.

Reunite Yuzu and me.

I need you to please, please, find my spirit and Yuzu's and bring us together. I lived one month, two weeks, four days and eight hours without Yuzu, and I can't do it anymore.

That's it.

So yeah, thanks.

-Karin I. Kurosaki

"Karin slit her wrists on their baby blankets...," Matsumoto choked through her tears.

I wiped the tears from my own cheeks, and stood.

"Matsumoto...I need you to help me find Karin and Yuzu."

I saw the two of them not long ago.

They were laughing in front of the Soul Academy gates, white lilies tucked into their hair, holding hands. Both were wearing the school uniforms.

Karin had her sleeves pushed up to her elbows, showing bloody scratches that spelled out Yuzu's name on one wrist and her own on the other. I flinched slightly, trying to keep my composure.

Karin saw me then. She ran to me, and bowed.

I nodded to her.

She took my hand and squeezed it.

"Thank you Hitsugaya-taicho..." she whispered, tears forming in her happy, dark eyes.

She turned and started to run back to her sister.

"Karin."

She looked at me.

"It's Toshirou to you."


End file.
